1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a technology for obtaining operational information on devices connected to a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, total cost of ownership (TCO) has been a keyword in reducing costs incurred relating to the ownership of devices. For example, the TCO of electronic devices, for example, image forming apparatuses such as copiers and printers, can be calculated by obtaining information including the purchase prices of the image forming apparatuses and the number of pages printed and thereby obtaining the running costs incurred by expendable supplies such as toner and paper.
To obtain running costs of electronic devices used by a client, it is necessary to obtain the operational information on the electronic devices. Such operational information is normally obtained by visiting the site where the electronic devices are installed.
Also, with the advancement of computer technologies, it has become possible to obtain the operational information on electronic devices via a network (see, for example, patent documents 1 and 2). Technologies disclosed in the patent documents 1 and 2 provide a program, apparatus, or system that is simply configured and makes it possible to monitor multifunction image forming apparatuses connected to a LAN by using a general-purpose network and existing facilities. In the disclosed technologies, the simple network management protocol (SNMP) is used for monitoring the multifunction image forming apparatuses. SNMP is a network management protocol. A network management model using SNMP includes a management apparatus called an SNMP manager and SNMP agents provided in devices to be managed by the SNMP manager. The SNMP manager sends requests to the SNMP agents and the SNMP agents return information requested. An SNMP agent in an SNMP-enabled device retains a management information base (MIB) that is management information on the SNMP-enabled device itself. Information items contained in the MIB are assigned standardized numbers called object identifiers (OID). The SNMP manager sends a request with OIDs specified to the SNMP agent and thereby obtains information from the SNMP agent.
[Patent document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-213110 (page 1)
[Patent document 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-318843 (page 1)
It is preferable to make the process of obtaining a total cost of ownership as efficient as possible. When multiple devices are used in an office of a client (client's office), it is troublesome and time-consuming to go around in the client's office to obtain the information on the devices.
On the other hand, when obtaining operational information of devices via a network of the client, it is necessary to connect a computer for obtaining the operational information on the devices to the network. However, it is troublesome to configure the network settings of the computer each time to obtain the operational information of devices. Also, for security reasons, it is not desirable to connect a computer of an outsider to a corporate network.
Further, operational information of devices of a client must be managed with the greatest possible care.